High School

NEW HAVEN — During the Woodland boys' reign as kings of the Naugatuck Valley League tracks, indoor and outdoor, they've made relay races the crown jewels of their titles.

But Tuesday night at the Floyd Little Athletic Center, a mishap in the penultimate relay likely cost the Hawks a shot at back-to-back league championships.

Woodland false started in the 1,600-meter sprint medley relay, a race in which the Hawks were favored by four seconds, and the disqualification allowed Naugatuck to pull away.

The Greyhounds claimed the boys title with 98 points to Woodland's 88, while Watertown was third with 72. The Hawks earned their second straight girls title with 113 points, besting Seymour (102) and Naugatuck (86).

Had the Woodland boys SMR team gotten off to a clean start and run a time within two seconds of its seeded mark, the Hawks would be celebrating another NVL championship. Instead, those 10 first-place points went to Derby, eight points for second went to Naugy and none went to Woodland.

"Things happen," Woodland boys coach Tim Shea said. "What we see on paper doesn't matter once the gun goes off. There were some other events in which we didn't score as many points as we thought we could have."

The Greyhounds opened a 66-56 lead after the sprint medley and never relinquished it.

"I thought we had an opportunity in spite of Woodland, and I thought some of our guys didn't run their best," Naugatuck coach Ralph Roper said. "We got lucky a few times. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good."

Woodland got as close as an 80-77 deficit when Nick LaPerriere won the 300-meter dash in 37.68 seconds en route to earning the meet's Most Outstanding Sprinter award.

"I knew I needed to get the 10 points because I knew we needed first place in something after we lost the SMR," LaPerriere said. "I ran hard in that one."

Naugy clinched the championship when Michael Uva finished third in the 3,200, the second-to-last event. His six points gave the Greyhounds a 12-point lead that was untouchable.

"It took a minute to set in, but it's pretty exciting now," said Uva, who helped Naugy take an early lead with a win in the 4-by-800. "When you see the upperclassmen doing this stuff so well all the time, it's pretty overwhelming."

Patrick Alves and Collin Reilly won the 600 and 1,000, respectively, to emerge as Naugy's other individual winners, while Woodland's other track winner was Brett Fowler in the 55 hurdles.

The Hounds stayed neck-and-neck with Woodland in the field, despite the Hawks' Mike Lang winning the long and high jumps. Lang cruised in the long jump, leaping 21 feet, 9 inches. He also won the high jump with a 5-foot-8 effort to earn two awards, including the Outstanding Meet Performer.

"It was only 5-8. I shouldn't even call that a win," Lang said. "It's good pressure (to win). I just have to keep it off my mind."

Lang's win in the high jump did little to boost Woodland's chances thanks to Naugy's Isaque Monteiro and Corey Andrew placing second and third. Their combined 14 points bested Lang's 10 and boosted the Greyhounds' lead late in the meet.

"Our field came up big-time," Roper said. "Up until a couple weeks ago, most of our guys had only jumped (in two meets) this season. For them to come out here and do what they did, that was huge."

The Woodland girls led wire-to-wire, jumping out in front with a win in the 4-by-200 relay and taking three other events on the night, despite their own disqualification in the SMR after a zone violation.

The Hawks excelled in the field as Becca Moscato set a personal best in the high jump to win with a 4-foot-10 leap.

"I don't know how that happened," Moscato said. "I've been going for 4-8 to make states, so I wasn't even thinking about going for 4-10. I got over it and I was like, 'Oh, my God.' I was in shock for like an hour afterward."

Woodland's Jazmyn Menzies was right behind Moscato in second to give the Hawks 18 points in that event. They also dominated the pole vault with Megan Lynch (first), Kim Thrasher (second) and Clara Atallah (fourth) racking up 21 points.

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